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adoption provided that a man had no son. This rule has been uniformly observed from ancient times down to the present day, and the new Civil Code also retains that rule, with, however, certain modifications. Article 839 provides that ‘a person having a male child who is the legal presumptive heir to the headship of the house is not allowed to adopt a son. But this rule does not apply in the case of adopting a son for the purpose of making him the husband of a daughter of the adopter.’

There is one form of adoption called ‘Muko-yoshi,’ or the adoption of a son-in-law. As has been already stated, the law considered a man childless even though he had a daughter. Males were the only continuers of worship, for formerly it was a strict rule that only males could become house-heads and perpetuators of the cult. Those who had daughters only, therefore, were obliged to adopt a son; but it was necessary for the blood of the ancestor to be, if possible, continued in the house. In such cases, a house-head selects a person as his adopted son who is fit to be his daughter’s husband. If adoption and marriage take place at the same time, it is called ‘Muko-yoshi.’ This form of adoption is very common, and is recognised by the new Civil Code (Article 839), and Article 102 of the Law of Registration.

But the marriage of the adopted son with the daughter of his adopter may take place subsequently to the act of adoption; for, although Article 769 of the Civil Code prohibits marriage between collateral blood relations within the third degree of kinship, collateral blood relationship of brothers and sisters by adoption is no bar to their marriage. A person who has a daughter frequently adopts a son with the expectation that the adopted son should marry his daughter when they grow up, and in most cases the parents’ wishes are fulfilled. In cases where the parties do not wish to marry dissolution of adoption very often takes place, either because the adopted son thinks it is his duty to leave the house, so that the daughter may remain in it and marry a second adopted son, thus preserving the blood of the ancestor in the house, or because the adoptive father desires the dissolution from the same motive.

The effect of adoption is that the adopted son acquires the same position as a natural-born, legitimate child (Article 860, Civil Code). He relinquishes the original house and worship and enters into the house of the adopter, taking the house name and clan name of the latter (Articles 860, 861, Civil Code). The consequence of his acquiring the status of an actual son and entering the house of the adoptive parent is that he becomes the legal presumptive heir to the headship of the house.

From what I have stated it may, I think, be laid down as a